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Wednesday, May 13, 2015

AFC suspends General Secretary as it keeps damning audit buried

AFC President Sheikh Salman with suspended AFC General Secretary Soosay at AFC Congress

By James M. Dorsey

The Asian Football Confederation (AFC) Wednesday suspended
its general secretary, Dato Alex Soosay, pending an investigation of allegations
that he had sought to tamper with or hide documents related to an investigation
into corruption and mismanagement in the AFC that were first reported on this
blog and in the Malay Mail.

In a terse statement that got its facts wrong in what looked
like a bid to pre-empt calls for a broader investigation, the AFC said that Mr.
Soosay had been “suspended by the AFC following media allegations which have
recently surfaced concerning a case in 2012. A video statement conducted as
part of a FIFA investigation was passed to media recently and the AFC has now
been able to verify its authenticity,” the statement said. It said AFC Deputy
General Secretary Dato Windsor John would temporarily replace Mr. Soosay “whilst
an internal investigation is conducted.”

It took the AFC more than two weeks to collect a copy of a
video tape on which the allegations were recorded from the date that they were disclosed
by this blog and the Malay Mail. On the tape and in a written statement, AFC
Finance Director Bryan Kuan Wee Hoong asserted that Mr. Soosay had asked him in
2012 at the time of a damning audit by PricewaterhouseCooper (PwC) to “tamper
or hide” any documents related to Mr. Soosay. Mr. Soosay has denied the
allegations.

Mr. Kuan recorded his allegations against Mr. Soosay in July
2012 in a taped and written statement to FIFA security officer Michael John
Pride who took the statements in his capacity as a private investigator rather
than as a contracted FIFA security officer. Mr. Pride did not pass Mr. Kuan’s
statements to either FIFA or the AFC. Mr. Kuan said on tape that he believed
Mr. Soosay’s request was related to the PwC audit. He said he had made his
statements to have a record should he ever be asked about the issue, not as
part of a FIFA investigation.

The AFC has in the past three years sought to bury the audit
which warned that multiple payments involving the group’s since banned
president, Mohammed Bin Hammam, who also served as world soccer body FIFA vice
president, potentially could expose the AFC to charges of tax evasion, bribery,
money laundering, and sanctions busting. The payments included two transfers
totalling $14 million from a shareholder of Singapore-based World Sport Group
(WSG) in advance of the signing of a $1 billion master rights agreement with
the AFC.

AFC president Sheikh Salman Bin Ebrahim Al Khalifa allowed
Mr. Soosay five days after Mr. Kuan’s allegations became public to sit on the
dais next to him during last month’s AFC Congress. Mr. Soosay like Mr. Kuan was
involved in conducting the congress’s proceedings.

PwC recommended that the AFC seek legal counsel on the
possibility of filing criminal and/or civil charges against Mr. Bin Hammam and
on whether it could renegotiate or cancel the $1 billion agreement with WSG.

“Our transaction review revealed that items sampled were, in
most cases, authorised by the General Secretary or Deputy General Secretary and
the Director of Finance. As signatories these parties hold accountability for
the authorisation of these transactions.
We also note the Internal Audit and Finance Committees were aware of
this practice,” PwC said referring to both Mr. Soosay and Mr. Kuan.

The AFC has sought to bury the PwC audit, which was limited
in scope and resources, because a full investigation on the basis of its
findings risked revealing alleged wide spread bribery and corruption in the way
the group conducted its business at the time of Mr. Bin Hammam’s presidency and
could implicate multiple regional and national soccer officials who were named
in the audit. It could potentially also force a cancellation or renegotiation
of the WSG contract that was never put to tender.

“As (Bin) Hammam was slapped with a life ban from FIFA and
quit all football related activities in December 2012, critics believe the (PwC)
report has served its purpose. But what about the other revelations made by
PwC? There is a lot of explaining to do. We are stakeholders and we demand answers.
Silence is not an option,” said Malay Mail executive editor Haresh Deol in a
recent editorial.

The AFC’s risk of being forced into a broader investigation
is linked to the fact that the Malaysian attorney general has asked police to
submit a report on the allegations of corruption and mismanagement within the
AFC at the time of Mr. Bin Hammam. Police sources told the Malay Mail that they
hoped that Mr. Kuan’s tape would further an investigation that has been
lingering since Mr. Kuan days after making his statements to Mr. Pride reported
to the police the alleged theft of documents from the AFC’s offices.

James M.
Dorsey is a senior fellow at the S. Rajaratnam School of International Studies
as Nanyang Technological University in Singapore, co-director of the Institute
of Fan Culture of the University of Würzburg and the author of the blog, The Turbulent World of Middle East Soccer, and a forthcoming book with the
same title.

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About Me

James M DorseyWelcome to The Turbulent World of Middle East Soccer by James M. Dorsey, a senior fellow at Nanyang Technological University’s S. Rajaratnam School of International Studies. Soccer in the Middle East and North Africa is played as much on as off the pitch. Stadiums are a symbol of the battle for political freedom; economic opportunity; ethnic, religious and national identity; and gender rights. Alongside the mosque, the stadium was until the Arab revolt erupted in late 2010 the only alternative public space for venting pent-up anger and frustration. It was the training ground in countries like Egypt and Tunisia where militant fans prepared for a day in which their organization and street battle experience would serve them in the showdown with autocratic rulers. Soccer has its own unique thrill – a high-stakes game of cat and mouse between militants and security forces and a struggle for a trophy grander than the FIFA World Cup: the future of a region. This blog explores the role of soccer at a time of transition from autocratic rule to a more open society. It also features James’s daily political comment on the region’s developments. Contact: incoherentblog@gmail.comView my complete profile